Mention influencer marketing 10 years ago and you may have received a few strange looks, but mention it now, and you’ll bring up a whole host of ideas, opinions and strategies. Yes, it sure has grown rapidly in recent years, but what’s all the fuss about?
Well, influencer marketing isn’t exactly a new trick when it comes to marketing strategies. In fact, influencer marketing has always been around, just perhaps not in the sense you knew. It’s the perception of who is now classified as influential that has really changed in the industry most recently.
For an awfully long time, celebrities, singers and sportsmen were the most commonly known influencers, and brands paid big bucks (think six figure digits) in order to have the coolest, most popular people showing off their products. Why? Because if the coolest people in the world have it, then the rest of the world will follow suit.
After six years of observing this industry in South Africa, we know that nowadays, consumers see past these endorsements and are looking for more authentic, relatable, and real recommendations before they make a purchase. Consumers are rolling their eyes and scrolling past many of the adverts that have been designed to convince them how badly they need something. What consumers are really seeking is genuine opinions on products, price and quality. And they don’t want to hear it from the brand. They want to hear it from someone who has tried it, tasted it, worn it, and used it, to find out if the brand is telling the truth.
Because of this, what has really changed today, is that unlike celebrities, influencers can be anyone, just like you and I. They’re called micro-influencers, and although they have a smaller online following, they are incredibly influential – as the name suggests. The exciting part is that there are influential people in every sphere, industry and interest you could ever imagine. Why? Because they are authentic and real.
Essentially, this type of marketing always focuses on people. And more specifically, the people that focus on them, i.e, their niche target audience. That’s because people listen to other people. In fact, 88% of customers trust online reviews by strangers as much as they would a recommendation by a friend.
Influencer marketing may be the fastest growing and most effective digital media channel today, but providing affordable high quality services to clients has proven to be a challenge for most agencies and brands. And making sense of influencer marketing to add it to your strategy might seem complicated, especially if you’re not sure where to start. With so much conflicting information out there on what strategy to use, who the best influencers are, and how to get your product talked about in the best way, we don’t blame you. That’s why we’ve dedicated our lives to specialising in what we believe is the most powerful marketing tool out there; people.
Let’s start with the basics.
Influencer marketing has so many different layers. So much so that we built our entire agency to specialise in it! But at the very core, influencer marketing uses people who already have an engaged audience, to endorse and advocate brands and products, by allowing the content creators to drive authentic conversations to their friends and followers. What is interesting is that influencers are not only doing campaigns in exchange for cash, many will only get involved if they actually believe in the product they’re promoting. This is what makes it so authentic, especially with the many passionate causes individuals are following in 2020.
It’s a highly effective way to relay a brand message to a very specific niche audience. Why? Well, that’s simple. People trust people more than they trust brands with 83% of consumers trusting recommendations from their peers over traditional advertising.
But this doesn’t mean that marketing budgets need to increase – brands are rather considering changing where their budgets are being spent. Instead of pushing more adverts, brands are exploring how impactful their marketing can be when they let people speak on their behalf, especially when used over time to build trust in consumers again by reaching them on their level.
Influencers are a lot like relay towers. They help spread a message to the world, transforming it along the way to fit their own network, and that’s why influencers should now form a part of every communication strategy.
Google ads not converting? Now might be the perfect time to launch an influencer marketing campaign that actually drives sales which are specifically tracked and reported on.
When people are involved, marketing always feels so much more real. As human beings, we search for connection, community and stories that we can enjoy. It’s what leads us into following influencers in the first place. But it’s also what makes influencer marketing so effective, with its authenticity and realness. According to Forbes, 43% of millennials rank authenticity over content when consuming news, meaning they first have to trust a brand before deciding to read any of their content.
For us at People Have Influence, it’s about a collaboration between both the brand and the talent. When both parties are equally suited and interested in each other, that’s when the real magic happens, and that’s when influencer marketing is most valuable.
It’s also important for brands to know that many influencers have turned this into their full-time career. They’ve spent time and money positioning themselves to the world, and have put a lot of thought into building their own personal brand, ensuring that their content is engaging, real and in line with what they believe in. Brands can now “hop” onto the success of an influencer’s niche audience, and reward the influencer appropriately, recognising the talent and time it’s taken for them to build such an engaged community.
There is, however, a darker, less authentic side to influencer marketing, where influencers have faked their engagement and online following statistics. I’m sure you’ve heard the horror stories of fake followers, bots, spam accounts and bought likes. We’ll spare you the details. But not to worry, when you partner with the right influencer marketing agency, like us, you can enjoy reporting software that detects fake followers and likes, as well as in depth sourcing, profiling and vetting, finding the right people that will ensure your campaign always remains genuine. Plus, we’ll give you access to a live report on the campaign metrics, so you can watch its success, track the conversions and see the engagement skyrocket, in real time.
In case you haven’t noticed, the digital world moves fast. As soon as you think you’ve mastered it all, there’s a change to a social media platform that throws everything you knew out the window. A few years ago, Instagram didn’t even exist, and if you’re old enough to remember a time before social media existed, perhaps you’re confused about what TikTok is too.
The quick, fast-paced world is what we love so much about what we do. It keeps us on our toes. But what really excites us is the shift in businesses and agencies. From only choosing to work with influencers who have large followings (aka celebrities), to now considering and strategically placing micro-influencers with brands that really matter. When matched correctly, this far beats any unauthentic Kim Kardashian product placement record.
Goodbye, old, outdated print ads and other traditional marketing efforts that just don’t work like they used to anymore. Say hello to authenticity, connection and engagement.
It’s for that reason alone that we truly believe micro-influencer marketing is already the next best thing. And it’s here to stay. In fact, we’ve opened a whole new portal of authentic marketing that we never knew how to tap into. Brands are already seeing its value, and the more they understand how to use this power, the more micro-influencer marketing is going to continue to expand.
Here’s just one small example. Do you remember when Zara launched their online store in South Africa? We were happy to be a part of it. According to Cosmopolitan, “Zara is a prime example of how to do influencer marketing to make an impact, drive talkability, create conversations and influence people to act.”
What’s more is that brands are beginning to understand influencer marketing in a way they never did before, especially when it comes to ROI. There are a number of different ways a brand can track ROI on influencer marketing efforts. Without sharing all the secrets, if it’s conversions you’re after, here is an example: You can create affiliate links or tracking codes to easily track how much moola is generated from your campaign. Keeping track of this information will help you in optimising your campaigns as you move forward.
Currently, influencer marketing is the fastest growing marketing channel in the world. With its estimated value sitting at $500M back in 2015, it has been predicted that it will grow to a whopping $10BN in 2020, all driven by less TV viewing, more digital marketing budgets and the impact of ad-blocking.
The best way to start is to make sure you’re with the right agency that can push the success of your campaign, has the right software to be able to track your ROI and look after the needs of both the brand and the influencer.
People are our thing. And we work with only the best talent. Get in touch with us and let’s chat about how we can incorporate influencers into your marketing strategy or head on over to @peoplehaveinfluence or www.peoplehaveinfluence.co.za where you’ll find us doing what we do best.
Mention influencer marketing 10 years ago and you may have received a few strange looks, but mention it now, and you’ll bring up a whole host of ideas, opinions and strategies. Yes, it sure has grown rapidly in recent years, but what’s all the fuss about?
Well, influencer marketing isn’t exactly a new trick when it comes to marketing strategies. In fact, influencer marketing has always been around, just perhaps not in the sense you knew. It’s the perception of who is now classified as influential that has really changed in the industry most recently.
For an awfully long time, celebrities, singers and sportsmen were the most commonly known influencers, and brands paid big bucks (think six figure digits) in order to have the coolest, most popular people showing off their products. Why? Because if the coolest people in the world have it, then the rest of the world will follow suit.
After six years of observing this industry in South Africa, we know that nowadays, consumers see past these endorsements and are looking for more authentic, relatable, and real recommendations before they make a purchase. Consumers are rolling their eyes and scrolling past many of the adverts that have been designed to convince them how badly they need something. What consumers are really seeking is genuine opinions on products, price and quality. And they don’t want to hear it from the brand. They want to hear it from someone who has tried it, tasted it, worn it, and used it, to find out if the brand is telling the truth.
Because of this, what has really changed today, is that unlike celebrities, influencers can be anyone, just like you and I. They’re called micro-influencers, and although they have a smaller online following, they are incredibly influential – as the name suggests. The exciting part is that there are influential people in every sphere, industry and interest you could ever imagine. Why? Because they are authentic and real.
Essentially, this type of marketing always focuses on people. And more specifically, the people that focus on them, i.e, their niche target audience. That’s because people listen to other people. In fact, 88% of customers trust online reviews by strangers as much as they would a recommendation by a friend.
Influencer marketing may be the fastest growing and most effective digital media channel today, but providing affordable high quality services to clients has proven to be a challenge for most agencies and brands. And making sense of influencer marketing to add it to your strategy might seem complicated, especially if you’re not sure where to start. With so much conflicting information out there on what strategy to use, who the best influencers are, and how to get your product talked about in the best way, we don’t blame you. That’s why we’ve dedicated our lives to specialising in what we believe is the most powerful marketing tool out there; people.
Let’s start with the basics.
Influencer marketing has so many different layers. So much so that we built our entire agency to specialise in it! But at the very core, influencer marketing uses people who already have an engaged audience, to endorse and advocate brands and products, by allowing the content creators to drive authentic conversations to their friends and followers. What is interesting is that influencers are not only doing campaigns in exchange for cash, many will only get involved if they actually believe in the product they’re promoting. This is what makes it so authentic, especially with the many passionate causes individuals are following in 2020.
It’s a highly effective way to relay a brand message to a very specific niche audience. Why? Well, that’s simple. People trust people more than they trust brands with 83% of consumers trusting recommendations from their peers over traditional advertising.
But this doesn’t mean that marketing budgets need to increase – brands are rather considering changing where their budgets are being spent. Instead of pushing more adverts, brands are exploring how impactful their marketing can be when they let people speak on their behalf, especially when used over time to build trust in consumers again by reaching them on their level.
Influencers are a lot like relay towers. They help spread a message to the world, transforming it along the way to fit their own network, and that’s why influencers should now form a part of every communication strategy.
Google ads not converting? Now might be the perfect time to launch an influencer marketing campaign that actually drives sales which are specifically tracked and reported on.
When people are involved, marketing always feels so much more real. As human beings, we search for connection, community and stories that we can enjoy. It’s what leads us into following influencers in the first place. But it’s also what makes influencer marketing so effective, with its authenticity and realness. According to Forbes, 43% of millennials rank authenticity over content when consuming news, meaning they first have to trust a brand before deciding to read any of their content.
For us at People Have Influence, it’s about a collaboration between both the brand and the talent. When both parties are equally suited and interested in each other, that’s when the real magic happens, and that’s when influencer marketing is most valuable.
It’s also important for brands to know that many influencers have turned this into their full-time career. They’ve spent time and money positioning themselves to the world, and have put a lot of thought into building their own personal brand, ensuring that their content is engaging, real and in line with what they believe in. Brands can now “hop” onto the success of an influencer’s niche audience, and reward the influencer appropriately, recognising the talent and time it’s taken for them to build such an engaged community.
There is, however, a darker, less authentic side to influencer marketing, where influencers have faked their engagement and online following statistics. I’m sure you’ve heard the horror stories of fake followers, bots, spam accounts and bought likes. We’ll spare you the details. But not to worry, when you partner with the right influencer marketing agency, like us, you can enjoy reporting software that detects fake followers and likes, as well as in depth sourcing, profiling and vetting, finding the right people that will ensure your campaign always remains genuine. Plus, we’ll give you access to a live report on the campaign metrics, so you can watch its success, track the conversions and see the engagement skyrocket, in real time.
In case you haven’t noticed, the digital world moves fast. As soon as you think you’ve mastered it all, there’s a change to a social media platform that throws everything you knew out the window. A few years ago, Instagram didn’t even exist, and if you’re old enough to remember a time before social media existed, perhaps you’re confused about what TikTok is too.
The quick, fast-paced world is what we love so much about what we do. It keeps us on our toes. But what really excites us is the shift in businesses and agencies. From only choosing to work with influencers who have large followings (aka celebrities), to now considering and strategically placing micro-influencers with brands that really matter. When matched correctly, this far beats any unauthentic Kim Kardashian product placement record.
Goodbye, old, outdated print ads and other traditional marketing efforts that just don’t work like they used to anymore. Say hello to authenticity, connection and engagement.
It’s for that reason alone that we truly believe micro-influencer marketing is already the next best thing. And it’s here to stay. In fact, we’ve opened a whole new portal of authentic marketing that we never knew how to tap into. Brands are already seeing its value, and the more they understand how to use this power, the more micro-influencer marketing is going to continue to expand.
Here’s just one small example. Do you remember when Zara launched their online store in South Africa? We were happy to be a part of it. According to Cosmopolitan, “Zara is a prime example of how to do influencer marketing to make an impact, drive talkability, create conversations and influence people to act.”
What’s more is that brands are beginning to understand influencer marketing in a way they never did before, especially when it comes to ROI. There are a number of different ways a brand can track ROI on influencer marketing efforts. Without sharing all the secrets, if it’s conversions you’re after, here is an example: You can create affiliate links or tracking codes to easily track how much moola is generated from your campaign. Keeping track of this information will help you in optimising your campaigns as you move forward.
Currently, influencer marketing is the fastest growing marketing channel in the world. With its estimated value sitting at $500M back in 2015, it has been predicted that it will grow to a whopping $10BN in 2020, all driven by less TV viewing, more digital marketing budgets and the impact of ad-blocking.
The best way to start is to make sure you’re with the right agency that can push the success of your campaign, has the right software to be able to track your ROI and look after the needs of both the brand and the influencer.
People are our thing. And we work with only the best talent. Get in touch with us and let’s chat about how we can incorporate influencers into your marketing strategy or head on over to @peoplehaveinfluence or www.peoplehaveinfluence.co.za where you’ll find us doing what we do best.
We’d love to hear from you. For any enquiries, questions or conversations, feel free to contact us.
